Sunday morning ramblings

[goshawk at gnat.net]

Boy I have discovered one thing, I think I'm going to be really 
strong after we finish building this house.

 I'm working on the center dome (22ft 8in diameter earth dome). 
Actually I'm still in the foundation part of it. Basically that means 
stabilized earth (aka my sandy soil mixed with cement (about 20 %)).
I remember being concerned that  when building with cob that the 
fact that it's difficult to go more than a foot high could slow me 
down. Ha ha. At least with the size of house we're building that 
really seems funny now. 

I'll be glad when I get the six inches or so above ground and can 
drop the cement. It's not as much of a pleasure to work with as clay 
and ain't so good for the skin either. 

One area I'm still knocking around is what type of floor I should use 
for these earth domes. I'm a little nervous that I'm building but 
have not made up my mind on that part of the house yet.  I hope I 
don't end up  regretting  not having pre-planned the floor. Cost and 
weather will be the determining factors. (oh yea and skill too). 

There is a Jim Walter Home just down the dirt road from us. In case 
you're not familiar with these houses, they are kind of a small 
rural version of a trac  house. The house is on 5 acres and a new 
sign went up that is was for sale. It had been abandonded by some 
previous owner a couple of years ago.  The sign also stated they were 
asking for $600 down and the rest  was negociable. We stopped in 
to take a look. I'm not sure but I think my wife was thinking of our 
17 year old son but that's another story. Upon entering the unlocked 
door  we discovered the sheet rock walls had incredible amounts of 
mold from the base of the floor to about 3 to 4 feet from this  base. 
The ceiling and upper portion of the walls seemed fine. 
Well since I am knocking around what type of floor to put in my earth 
dome house I figured I should pay attention as not to repeat the same 
mistakes.

The was your very basic stick house sitting on foundation/stem wall 
of concrete blocks. It was off the ground about 2 to 3 feet. There 
were  some metal  ventilation  place in the blocks but my 
own personal opinion is that they were not  enough. Plus they 
probably didn't lay any plastic in the ground under the house and 
didn't have any insulation under the house/floor boards. Thus the 
very humid air around here simply has been traveling up from the 
ground, through the floor boards and thee  was absorbed by the mostly
unpainted sheet rock. Mold then set in. 

Key thing to remember here is what ever type of floor I come up 
with, I'd better account for a potential moisture problem.  How have 
some of you folks dealt with the problem of humid damp climates and 
cob houses? I'm planning to add some air ducts made from 4 inch 
plastic pipe. The air vents will lead from the floor, under the 
ground out into the woods some where. The big dome will  have a 
18 foot ceiling, so with some vents located near the top and the 
vents in the floor I should get some air flow during our long hot 
humid summers.



Well it's down the hill and back to work. Got to work those muscles. 

Pat.

 
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" Arther C Clark